The CITES meeting, currently taking place in South Africa, comes at a crucial time for the world’s wildlife and for conservation. Illegal trade in wildlife has boomed in recent years. The trade is now worth US$23 billion a year.

Two villagers were killed and about 40 injured (plus 18 police) during an eviction this week from India’s Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The Gauhati High Court ordered the eviction of 300 families who were living in three villages in the buffer zone of the national park.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has approved a motion urging governments to prohibit industrial activities like mining, dam building, oil and gas extraction, logging, and road building from national parks and indigenous peoples’ and community conserved territories and areas (ICCAs).